First, there was the USA's first known serial killer, Mr. H. H. Holmes from the Chicago World's Fair, the real name of which is World's Columbian Exposition (because Columbia is the USA's little-known first name before reverting to the reptilian name Amerika, not related to Amerigo Vespucci as we are all taught).
Where are the "devils"? They are with the ghosts and demons in the underworld (ancient Greek Hades), Gehenna, or what the ancient Chinese call Fengdu Ghost City (Chinese 丰都鬼城, 豐都鬼城) pinyin Fēngdū Guǐ Chéng, originally 酆都鬼城 [1]).
This is a large complex of Chinese shrines, temples, and monasteries dedicated to the afterlife located on Ming Mountain [2] in Fengdu County, Chongqing municipality, China [3]. It is situated about 110 miles (170 km) downstream from Chongqing on the north bank of the Yangtze River.
The city consists of buildings, structures, dioramas, and statues related to Diyuand Naraka, concepts from Chinese mythology and Buddhism that signify the underworld or hell(s). It is modeled to resemble Youdu, the capital of Diyu.
After the building of the Three Gorges Dam and the rising of the water level of the river it became separated from the city of Fengdu, which was rebuilt higher up the mountainside on the south side of the river [4]. More: Fengdu Ghost City
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The UnXplained, Nov. 17, 2024: CC Liu, Ashley Wells, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
"KARMA: It's everywhere you're going to be." Deeds have the power to produce resultants.
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Pranks are fun to watch because they're funny and because it's not us on the receiving end. It must be terrifying, if even for the first moments, to be the pranked on. But it sure is funny, at least for males. Females may have more sense and sensibility, preferring to daydream about Darcy coming to save them. They are so fun, funny, and fascinating that a question comes up: Are they unskillful karma?
That is, will they result in unpleasant, unwished for, unwanted, even unbearable results when they come to fruition and ripen?
It seems to be a matter of degrees if one thinks about it just a little. What's "better," to kill one person or two people?
But isn't karma an "imponderable" and unanswerable question in Buddhism? No, what's imponderable is the working out (vipaka-phala) of karma (deeds). What we throw out by our mental, verbal, and physical actions will come back to us, but precisely HOW they will come back, that is imponderable and would drive one to madness to keep trying to figure out.
The answer is obvious only it's hard to answer because, between only those two choices, of course it's better to killer fewer people but it cannot in any way be said that it's "good" (and certainly not "better") to kill anyone.
In exactly the same way and for the same reason, a person pranked Halloween-style is going to be scared. That fear may dissolve and resolve again as catharsis, laughter, an adrenaline rush, a moment of clarity, hiccuplessness, or whatever, but for that span of time, one was frightened, experiencing horripilation, terrified, apoplectic, having a bowel movement -- and that can't be good to do to someone just for laughs.
If one imagines a motive -- such as to teach a valuable lesson or remind someone of something or to bring about sudden relief or whatever -- that may modify the karma and attenuate, but it certainly does not erase it, absolve it, make it good, or turn it into an indulgence to be paid off. It's still bad. It's like spanking someone. Whatever the motive, it is still bad (violent, insensitive, cruel, abusive) and potentially traumatizing. One may later thank you for traumatizing him or her, such as when that person grows up, joins the military, and kills many people instead of bowing out of a mission like a smarter or less traumatized person might think to do. But that thanks does not mean it was a good or neutral deed on the part of the doer, only that it had some effect for which the victim feels a necessity to have gratitude, like when you are beaten in prison on arrival, not because you did anything wrong or deserved it but only because stronger guys were looking out for your future and wanted you to toughen up, look alert, and mind your Ps and Qs. You may thank them when you avoid getting jumped by antagonistic opponents or get jumped but were ready for it because you remained hypervigilant after the first beating. But that won't make that beating "good." At best, it might make it "mixed." Mixed means at least partially bad, negative, harmful, an therefore resulting in suffering (dukkha) for the doer.
If one beats one's child with a "good" parental motive then imagines that as a karmic result, later on, perhaps in a future life, one is beaten by one's parent with a "good" motive, how is that going to be experienced, how is it going to feel, what are going to be the negative results (whether or not there are any positive ones)? Say that, indeed, one doesn't flip off the neighbor anymore but, on account of being beaten, starts seeing beating others (being physically violent and/or scolding) as a means to an end -- as demonstrated by one's own loving parent? Will one call that a win and say that beating is not bad karma? It is clearly bad karma even if it does some good or has some positive outcome in addition to all the negative outcomes. What if the child becomes nervous, fearful, introverted, shy, full of violent outbursts, closed in, untrusting...? "But, at least, does not flip off the neighbor anymore" will be a pathetic rationalization when trying to explain that spanking was "good karma."
Would that karma were so nice and limited, but each act has exponential results.
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Reduce debt, maximize profit
What are the motives for pranks? That is another way to know whether something is skillful (wholesome, good, meritorious, proper conduct, advantageous, beneficial, harmless, in line with the dhamma): find the motives motivating it. There are six motives to choose from, and it is never really going to be just one. It will tend to be a mixed bag. At one impulsion (javana), at one mind moment (citta), it may be just one motive, but there are thousands if not millions of such impulsions and mind moments in one act (karma). The most important quality of the karma (act) is the cetana (motive, ambition, intention behind it). The six motives are easy to remember because they flipsides of one another:
greed (attraction), nongreed
hatred (aversion), nonhatred
delusion (wrong view), nondelusion.
Actions motivated by any degree of greed, hatred, or delusion we can put in the unskillful, unwholesome, harmful, producing dukkha pile.
Actions motivated by any degree of nongreed (letting go, giving up, sharing, generosity, nonstinginess, charity, compassion, caring, loving-kindness, harmlessness) we can put in the skillful pile, which produces (when it finally comes to fruition, which is whenever it meets the necessary and sufficient conditions to come to frution, much more likely later rather than sooner.
Actions motivated by aversion (FEAR, annoyance, disliking, revulsion, hatred) we can put in the unskillful pile.
Actions motviated by nonaversion (tolerance, sympathy, mercy, compassion, loving kindness, fairness, enlightened self-interest) we can put in the skillful pile.
Actions motivated by delusion (ignorance, confusion, wrong view, misplaced or blind faith, fanaticism) we can put in the unskillful pile, which produces unwelcome, unwanted results when they (those impulsions and mind moments) come to fruition and ripen.
Actions motivated by nondelusion (wisdom, direct knowing and seeing, understanding, clarity) we can put in the skillful pile.
Spite, not your boyfriend, is karma.
One thing that should be clear although it is probably not is that there is no such thing as greed or hatred without delusion. Delusion gives rise to greed. It gives rise to hatred. There could be greed without hatred, and hatred without greed, or delusion without either, but otherwise they are usually mixed up, supporting one another, producing unskillful karma.
All that one might say in condemnation of the first three mentioned might can be turned around to praise the other three, but one must understand these terms are translated from a more sophisticated and subtle language with more nuances than English. Pali, which comes from Sanskrit, has many multivalent terms, with each word having a RANGE of meanings. That's why it sounds "negative," non-this and non-that. But according to Bhikkhu Bodhi and other scholars, this is just a convention. Nondelusion (whatever it might mean in English) really does mean "wisdom" in the original languages of the Buddha (Gandhari, Magadhi, Pali, Prakrit, Sanskrit). And nonhatred (adosa) is not merely the absence of hatred but the positive aspects of loving kindness. Our English ears have trouble hearing this and we see negativity where it is not.
Another way to have looked at this question, "Is it (pranks or anything else) bad karma?" would have been to compare life to the Disciplinary Code or Rules and Regulations the Buddha set down for monastics. Bothering others, no matter the motive, is bad because it bothers them. So thoughtlessly, unmindfully, neglectfully, carelessly, inadvertently making noise that is disruptive to others is labeled "wrong" and "not to be done" in the Vinaya. One trivial example that comes to mind is that, while eating, which in olden times was done with the hand, one is not to scrape the bottom of the bowl with one's nails such as to make noise that bothers others who are eating.
There was no intention to bother them and, nevertheless, it is wrong and should be avoided. If done with the motive to disturb others, then it is clearly bad however minor it may seem or however many rationalizations we may give. So following the example of the Monastic Sangha, who are models of good behavior for Buddhists (not that they always are), we can clearly see that pranking, joking, teasing, or even unintentionally disturbing others by our walking loudly, coughing, twitches, scratching, snoring, carelessly passing wind, and so on can be deemed violations of the Code, which applies to monastics and not us but is an example to us of what the Buddha taught for the longevity of Buddhism (the Dharma in the world), the respect of others for Buddhism and the Buddha as a teacher, for the comfort of the peaceful, and for the taming of the disturbed. The Vinaya explains why each rule or regulation was set down in the first place, with a backstory to explain its necessity. Some rules are as general as just for making it comfortable to be around or for the calming of those who are not calm. Big time pranks would never be in line with this. Little teases maybe, but even that is walking the line as we never know how someone is going to take something. We might be able to know our motives, innocent or not, but they are not likely to know those motives so may grow resentful, angry, vengeful, disturbed, or motivated to strike back. For peace's sake, keep the peace. Pranks are anti-peaceful.
Karmic results
What will be the result of any intentional action? We may imagine that it is commensurate with the act, and it is, but we all fail to understand "the act." The typical misconception, based more on a popular understanding of Hinduism than what the Buddha taught, is that if we do one thing, that one thing will happen to us in return.
This is wrong for at least two reasons. One, we don't realize what constitutes "the act" (the deed, action, intention). The Abhidhamma (the "Dharma in Ultimate Terms") as a treatise of Buddhist psychology goes into extreme detail about what "consciousness" is. We may think it's a thing, but in fact it's a process, a stream of mind-moments (cittas). These are not really "thoughts" but components or "particles" of awareness. Mental formations -- such as feelings, perceptions, volitions, and 50 others -- give us "consciousness." Among these are javanas or "impulsions." If there are countless cittas streaming, there are an exponential number of javanas for each. Each of these might lay down a track, a seed, that later manifests as a karmic result. If this understanding is correct, one "deed" (with uncountable cittas and javanas) will result in an exponential number of results. The is for the good, the bad, and the neutral resulting in welcome, unwelcome, and neither welcome-nor-unwelcome results. Results are of two kinds, resultants (vipakas) and fruit (phala). It's not clear what the distinction is, but it used to be said that one referred to mental resultants and the other to physical circumstances. Thus, one can see that mental resultants might be immediate (regret, remorse, sadness, mental pain, delight, passion, joy, elation, etc.) whereas as life circumstances might be the fruit, our situation, where we are born, how our body is, our looks, health, longevity or lack of these.
Two, since ancient times, for whatever reason, people have made the mistake of thinking that if we do something in a certain way, that deed will produce the same thing for us in the same way. This is completely wrong. When the Buddha was asked about it, he said that such a view was the negation of his teachings on karma. For example, if we slap someone in public, we may worry that our deed (our karma of slapping that person in public) will result in us being slapped in public. This is so common a view that there's no convincing even most Buddhists that this is wrong. This is what sutras and stories, the media and our own thinking tell us is "fair" and proportionate. It's incorrect. The Buddha teaches a variable result of karma. For example, if someone kills, the result will not be that one is killed. That could be the result. It may even be likely that that is the result. Oh, if only it were we might learn something. The results are actually much worse. That act, that deed, because so many things led up to it, because it was motivated by so many cittas and so many more impulsions, will yield unwelcome results over and over, again and again for a long, long time. Even if the negative results are avoided in this life (we are not caught, we are not punished, we experience no remorse, regret, sadness, misgivings, worries about retribution, coarseness, insensitivity, drunkenness to try to drown the guilt or bolster the rationalizations), they will not be avoided forever.
So "live by the sword, die by the sword" is not necessarily true. It is self-evidently untrue in the way we understand it and true in another way we do not understand. We think that because this killer who killed with a sword, who killed many people because he lived "by the sword" as a soldier, cop, or criminal must die by getting stabbed or beheaded, but he died of a heart attack or disease or old age surrounded by his loved ones. How could this be? Doesn't make the famous utterer of that adage wrong? That utterer will be vindicated because there are many lives, not just this one. So what if he doesn't "die by the sword" this time? He likely will in the future, many times over, but even if he doesn't, even if that is avoided, he will reap what he has sown and it will produce many unwelcome results (resultants and fruits, multiplying, maturing and ripening). In hell realms, one may be killed with a sword many times. And, still, having been killed many times over, having had many lives shortened by this act, incurring animosity and fear from others, bad looks, an angry disposition, aversion, fear, worry, and so on, that deed is not exhausted. It keeps producing unwelcome results when it gets the opportunity.
Even if the negative results are avoided in the very next life, which is unlikely since it is a heavy karma (course of action with the power to drag us down to the downfall or niraya and condition our rebirth in an unfortunate plane of existence, among animals, ghosts, demons, or hellions), going from brightness to darkness or darkness to darkness, there is still the probability of that deed bearing its result in subsequent lives when it gets the opportunity to produce results. When it finally catches up with us, the result will not be someone kills us and that's that. It is far more likely that it will result in sickliness, a shortened lifespan wherever one is born, ugliness, and other problems, to say nothing of the possibility that the person we killed will seek revenge life after life, in a cycle of retribution because we will strike back and get in more trouble. But, say, no bad result ever came about until one life far in the future, a fortunate rebirth on a good plane of existence on or above the human plane. And there the result was that it caused a shortened life and we died prematurely: That karma is in no way exhausted by that having happened. We are likely to have many lifespans shortened, have much sickliness, much pain, many lives in the downfall (a collective term for subhuman lives which have much suffering and very little hope of escape). When we add up what happened as a result of that "one" deed of killing, we will certainly understand that it was not worth it. Conversely, a skillful deed was more than worth it. If we give, share, help others, we will be helped many times over before that karma of giving that one time, even a small amount, is exhausted. (It depends to whom and how we give, but giving is good, which is not to say that it can't be made bad or soured or used as a pivot point for negativity. Imagine if we give to shame someone, outdo someone, belittle someone, or simply to gain more for ourselves. It looks like giving and sharing from the outside, but inside we can see a negative motive for a "good" deed. So it can bear its mixed results, perhaps ironically. What if as a result of giving, we get a fortune BUT we are limited to distributing it not enjoying it ourselves? We are made the head of a trust fund for others with a pittance of a stipend for serving on the board of its distribution. So the Buddha many times advised, for the nondoing of the unskillful and the doing of the skillful, this is what a buddha teaches. Why he teaches is that we and others around us might benefit. He wished for the whole world, far beyond this human plane, to benefit.
Kar Krashes and Karens (instant karma?)
This is the strange and seemingly "unfair" thing about karma. We only killed that one time, yet we are experiencing the unwanted, unwelcome, unbearable results over and over again. Similarly with skillful or good deeds, with merit. Though we only give a little, it comes back manifold. (Cast your bread upon the water).
Finally, what is the ultimate wisdom? It is enlightenment (bodhi, satori, kensho, vipassana, insight, epiphany, dawning, knowledge, sight, knowing-and-seeing, liberating-wisdom, awakening). Why? It is because ignorance (avijja, avidya, moha, miccha-ditthi, maya) is the root of all our problems in samsara (the cycle of rebirth, "again becoming," reappearance) which is inseparable from dukkha so long as we're trapped in it. Liberation (moksha) is no longer being trapped even when we still might be in it as in nirvana-with-remainder, the living arhat or buddha who still experiences pain (dukkhata) but has overcome all that can upset (dukkha) -- a response to pain rooted in aversion or frustration in wanting something to be other than the way it is.
Less is more. We should have said far less (words) and it would have been much more (useful). But for readers who read all the way through, comment. Is there any sense in what the Buddha taught? It's not so different than our Christian, Hindu, Jain, and even Jewish teachings, only the Buddha tweaked those misunderstandings and made them so clear that in his day, he was never called a "Buddhist" but frequently called a "Karmavadin," a teacher of the efficacy of deeds.
You may think I'm "hot," but I'm d*ad cold, so the joke's on you (Ariana Viera, RIP).
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There's great hope in what he taught because in all but five situations (regarding five heinous deeds), all karma is modifiable and may even be compensated for so that it does not ruin us. Even in the case of those five deeds, and we can look at the example of Devadatta for evidence of this, karma does not rule everything. Karma is not the cause of everything. Those five have the unfortunate power to bear the result in the very next (immediate) rebirth, and it will not be good. But what else we do now will also condition the future, even if other deeds are not powerful enough to expunge or avoid this powerful result of immediate next rebirth experience. The evidence is in what the Buddha said would happen to Devadatta, the Judas figure in Buddhism. He might have much suffering ahead of him, much explaining and accounting for his horrific misdeeds, yet he would eventually become an arhat perhaps even a silent buddha.
In previous years, Pope and future San Francis[co] was happy to rub women's feet during Holy Week.
This year, he's not feeling so well. In fact, he's going to sit this Easter out if that's alright with the Catholic world. He's busy attending to his body.
God has not given him the health to head the world's oldest corporation in charge of making God's will known to sinners or how to pay indulgences or say Hail Marys to make up for their wicked and evil sinfulness.
Didn't know you had a fetish, Father. - It's Pontiff
One would think Satan would lay off the pontiff during this most glorious part of the liturgical calendar, but there's no rest for the wicked, proving that Pope Francis deserves the sainthood headed his way as his golden parachute when he steps down from the Vatican, Inc. (Unlimited).
1. The Papacy: The belief in the Pope as the successor of Saint Peter, the Bishop of Rome, and the leader of the global Catholic Church. is rooted in tradition and interpretations of passages like Matthew 16:18–19, but no explicit office of the Pope is detailed in the Bible.
Jesus had a harrowing time in hell, was happy to get out, yet many disbelieve in the abyss
Jesus as a Buddhist monk during his missing years in India (Nicolas Notovitch/Holger Kersten)
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Mahayana Savior Ksitigarbha
Rumor has it, with textual support, that Jesus went to hell. What was He doing there, as the GO TO ("God of the Omniverse)? Was He by any chance engaged in the sort of good works bodhisattvas (buddhas-to-be) engage in in hell?
One of the most famous Buddhists in all of Mahayana is a bodhisattva ("savior") figure named Ksitigarbha, who has vowed to empty all the hells (and there are many more than one divided into 9 planes, eight terrible worlds including Avici, the lowest and most torturous of the infernos, plus one that may be even worse, the interstitial hell not everyone is aware of).
All hail the Bodhisattva in hell
Was good Saint Issa engaged in this important spiritual work of acting as the "guardian of souls"? Or is it just that Christianity borrowed and stole so much of its message from the many religions and spiritual traditions of the world it tried and continues to try to conquer?
The historical Buddha, after all, is a Catholic saint. If that's not cultural appropriation, what is?
Jesus is Caesar's Messiah before he's the good rabbi of Nazareth or the traveler who ventured to India during his "lost years" to study as a Buddhist monk in Hemis Gompa, Tibet (now Ladakh, India).
Kshitigarbha has been saving sentient beings — including beings suffering in the “hell realms” — for countless years. Upon hearing the voice of the Buddha, the elder’s son made a great vow: “I vow to rescue all suffering sentient beings across uncountable eons and the six paths [places of rebirth] of samsara [wandering and cycling through the Wheel of Death and Rebirth] by establishing convenient methods [expedient means]. When all have been saved, only then will I attain Buddhahood [when they are freed, then I will take my leave from this otherwise Endless Round]” (Buddha Weekly).
To help those in hell(s), there is a mantra
Sid had a white pony, so why did Jess ride a donkey?
Can we truth the Bible on the Historical Jesus?
Holy Week (Greek Agia ké Megale Evdomas, lit. "Holy and Great Week") is the most sacred week of the for Christians [1, 2]. So it's not Xmas? For all Christian traditions, Holy Week is a moveable observance.
In the older tradition called Eastern Orthodox Christianity, which also calls it Great Week, it is the week following Great Lent and Lazarus Saturday, starting on the evening of Palm Sunday and concluding on the evening of Great Saturday [3].
In Western Christianity [Note A], Holy Week is the sixth and last week of Lent, beginning with Palm Sunday and concluding on Holy Saturday [1, 2, 5, 6].
Holy Week begins with the commemoration of Jesus Christ's triumphalist entry into Jerusalem on a white donkey on Palm Sunday, marks the betrayal of Jesus by a Jewish guy named Judas on Spy Wednesday (Holy Wednesday), climaxing with the commemoration of the Mystical or Last Dinner on Holy Thursday, and the PassionSuffering of Jesus on Good Friday. That would be today.
Holy Week concludes with Christ's pseudo-death and literal descent into hell on Holy Saturday [5, 6].
Roman psyops made this myth
[So Jesus, who made hell and cast millions or billions of beings into it (as part of the Trinity), had never visited? Wait, he is the creator of the all and everything, but he didn't create hell, such a big place in the universe? Oh, he did create it, and he does throw countless living beings into it when they seem to die but still move around without this body and have thoughts and memories of a past life or lives? But he's simultaneously all-good, all-knowing, and all-powerful only not powerful or knowledgeable enough to know what to tell his creations so they can avoid unimaginable suffering? Right. Good story, very consistent.]
Christians believe that Jesus died, was resting as a corpse from the ninth hour (3:00 pm) on Good Friday until just before dawn on Sunday morning, the day of his rebirth or resurrection from death, commonly known as Easter Sunday.
However, in 1 Peter 3:19, there may be a clue as to a task Jesus performed during this period between death and rebirth or resurrection: "By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison."
This marks the beginning of the season of Eastertide, with its first week being known as Easter Week (Bright Week) now that all the holiness is set aside until next year. More
Forged: Writing in the Name of God - Why the Bible's Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are
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Forgery (Joseph Wheless)
There are a lot of curious things about Holy Week its themes that are relevant to Buddhist themes. Could it be a coincidence? That's doubtful. Christianity, particular its Universalism branch (called catholic that gave its name to Catholicism), is an aggregate tradition, collecting points of dogma from the world's smorgasbord of religion and spirituality. It took a great deal from Buddhism and Hinduism, just as Judaism took as much as it could get from Sumerian culture. Christianity is syncretism, which is why it may not always make sense. The rationalizations of the Church Fathers found a way to make sense of everything, but often this was hammered out by mere reasoning as if they did not know the origins of the doctrines. Moreover, there's a weird kind of Universalism already existing. Who knows if it's a recent development or a remnant from the time when the world had a single enforced religion. That time is coming again when we'll all be bullied to believe in just ONE thing, one teaching, one savior to come, one set of rules for everyone, one explanation. That will probably not be a good day because it will not likely be the true and correct thing. That religion will not be called, although it should, Syncretianity.
Dhr. Seven, Seth Auberon, Sheldon S., Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly COMMENTARY, Wiki edit; Asking, What does Bible scholar Bart D. Ehrman have to teach us?
Kṣitigarbha is in Sanskrit क्षितिगर्भ, Chinese 地藏, pinyin Dìzàng, Japanese 地蔵, rōmaji Jizō, Korean 지장 (地藏), romaja Jijang, Vietnamese Địa Tạng(地藏), Standard Tibetan ས་ཡི་སྙིང་པོ་, Wylie sa yi snying po.
This name translates as "Earth Treasury," "Earth Store," "Earth Matrix," or "Earth Womb."
He is a bodhisattva primarily revered in East Asian Buddhism (rather than the Theravada of South and Southeast Asia) and usually depicted as a Buddhist monk.
Kṣitigarbha is one of the four principal bodhisattvas along with Samantabhadra, Manjusri, and Avalokiteśvara (transformed into Kwan Yin, the Buddhist goddess of compassion) in East Asian Mahayana Buddhism.
At the pre-Tang dynasty grottos in Dunhuang and Longmen, this figure is depicted in classical bodhisattva form. After the Tang, he became increasingly depicted as a monk, carrying Buddhist meditation prayer beads and a staff.
Goddess of Compassion
Kṣitigarbha is famous and revered for his vow to take responsibility for the instruction of all beings in the six worlds [a Mahayana condensation of the 31 Planes of Existence the historical Buddha outlines] between the final nirvana of the Buddha Gautama and the eventual rise of Maitreya Buddha.
Moreover, he made a vow refrain from achieving supreme buddhahood until all hells are emptied. He is therefore often regarded as the bodhisattva of hell-beings, as well as the guardian of children and patron deity of deceased children and aborted fetuses in Japanese culture.
Usually depicted as a monk with a halo around his shaved head, he carries a staff to force open the gates of hell and a wish-fulfilling jewel to light up the darkness.
The Ksistigarbha Bodhisattva Mantra
CC Liu, Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit
(Best Documentary) Sept. 6, 2023: The worst prisons in the world | full documentary
Side with abused or abusers?
00:00 The Worst Prisons in the World
01:39 Children as young as 10 are being held in overcrowded and unsafe prison cells in Quezon City, Philippines
10:23 Katrina, a European woman, is incarcerated in a prison with overcrowded cells and poor conditions, where she feels unsafe but finds solace in her cellmates
19:29 In a prison, the inmates discuss the limited resources they have and the potential dangers they face, including the risk of infection from prohibited items
31:29 The largest prison in Europe, Fleury-Mérogis, is struggling to control the connections between inmates and the smuggling of prohibited items
'Time traveller' comes back from the year 2671 to warn 'real-life Purge' is coming
Peekaboo, now we're here, too. Earth is ours
The self-professed time-traveler's latest baffling claim is that he has a list of catastrophic events coming in October of this year [2023]: He warns it will be a month that "makes history."
A TikToker who previously claimed to be a "time traveler from the Year 2671" has now warned that a real-life "Purge" will take place in October of this year, following a global power outage.
Eno Alaric, who is also known as @radianttimetraveller on TikTok, has gained more than 26,000 followers for posting warnings about supposed future events.
The social media user has previously issued warnings about twin planets colliding with Earth, alien visitors, and even the start of World War III. [Stay afraid because fear, a form of hate (dosa or aversion), is a motivation for self-defeating karma.]
The self-professed time-warper's latest baffling claim is that he has a list of catastrophic events coming in October this year: He warns it will be a month that "makes history."
In the video, which has gained more than 2,200 likes, Alaric explained:
"ATTENTION! Yes, I am a real-time traveler. These are the major events to come in October 2023. October is considered one of the most impactful months in history, due to many of these events.
"October 3: An alien ship falls to Earth during a large meteor shower, containing hostile species. This alien escapes the pod as soon as it lands and begins to wreak havoc on large cities.
"October 7: The James Webb Telescope sees a giant space creature eating stars. It will come to our solar system and eat the Sun next, and it could eliminate all life near it.
"October 15: A human-like species is discovered inside of Mount Everest, with an entire civilization. They have telepathic abilities and want to control humans, they'll do anything for power.
"October 29: A very powerful solar flare hits Earth, causing a global power outage. No machines work, and it turns into the 'Purge' for weeks, crime increases by 12,000%, and is very hard to get under control."
(Moon) Why are we so weak now? Freud's nephew: Edward "PR" Bernays
TikTok viewers took to the comments to debate over whether the warning could become a reality or not. One user wrote: "Halloween this year is going to be a doozie."
Another argued: "No time traveler prediction has ever come true." [Yeah, but he's so specific. "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." I'm sure it'll all be alright.]
The Purge is a terrible trilogy about people using violence, channeling collective anxiety to slaughter each other. It's their way of attempting to burn through rising tensions between clans, tribes, neighbors, and so on, in a nearby town.
Perhaps the writers intended the film’s message to be a wake up call for how we need to work to remember the value of being neighborly (as modeled by Mister Rogers’ decades-long testament showing the usefulness of uplifting TV programming).
Wiktionary says the Latin root of the word “purge” is purgo, “to make clean” or “purify.” Unfortunately, the Purge perpetuates ultraviolent fantasies propagated on TV and in Hollywood since the 1980s. It might even be older than that.
Purgatory is a terrible series of purifications
During a recent caffeinated conversation, Dante’s Divine Comedy came up: It's a classic, a three-part work consisting of Paradiso (“Paradise”), Purgatorio (“Purgatory”), and Inferno (“Hell”).
In Purgatorio, a “middle-place between heaven and hell,” people are trapped by their own devices, until whatever “impurities” or stains of their souls are expunged and they can move forward on their spiritual paths.
A few years ago, I had the unique opportunity to attend meetings, which usually included the same elixir, with a remarkable man. I’ll refer to him as "the Alchemist."
A master of many arts, such as motorcycle maintenance, he had resolved to devote his remaining time on earth to experimenting and researching mystery schools, Raja Yoga, soul-forms, astral travel and how to apply these ideas to everyday life.
Of the many meetings I remember sitting in on, one involved the Alchemist's commentary on the topic of purgatory. His reflections were derived from a Gnostic idea. (The Gnostic Gospels were edited out of the official Roman Catholic version of Christianity, leaving out the story of chief apostle Mary Magdalene and the surprising Gospel of Judas, where Judas plays a key role in the plan).
Civilizations exist INSIDE our hollow earth? We're unaware of Agartha
In India, as St. Issa, I learned the wisdom of the East.
The "Gnostic idea" is that the surface of earth is a reform school overseen by a group of stern superintendent-wardens who are responsible for maintaining the quarantine of all “embodied-humans” in this realm. This includes ensuring that no embodied human escapes until she or he has completed the necessary spiritual-schoolwork required for graduating from “Terra,” our surface world.
The Alchemist went on to clarify that a primary step in the process of “graduating” from this realm is to “purify” oneself from all illusory thoughts that keep us karmically entangled, that is, earthbound.
According to these claims and his own research, experiments, and observances, the Alchemist concluded that what we call “normal life” on the earth's surface is, in fact, the purgatory realm described by Dante.
Yazoo Kristos: Jewish Essene Gnostic mystic
During its nascent years (approximately 1682-1772), the Religious Society of Friends, now colloquially called the “Quakers,” testified to the necessity of individual purging as a requisite for mystical self-initiation.
This mysterious practice of purging among the early Quakers has maintained little to no how to instructions as far as I've discovered. However, the desired result of purging is allegedly related to a cleansing of one’s body, mind, and spirit so as to receive divine revelation.
Another requisite the Alchemist shared with us was the necessity of internalizing and embodying the act of sacrifice (i.e., “making sacred”).
Dating as far back in recorded history as the Olmec and Mayan cultures, humans have immortalized the act of sacrifice in drawings, writing, societal mores and traditions.
Instances of such traditions are evident in Chac Mool statues of ancient Mexico. A man holds a sacred fire offering bowl over his abdomen while laying in a strengthening supine position.
The Jewish and Christian traditions used bread and wine and made a symbol of the Christ (the Kristos or "Anointed One") as a sacrificial lamb.
There were tithings to the Jewish priestly caste rabbis, who slaughtered donated animals and turned them into "burnt offerings" to JHVH -- four letters commonly misinterpreted as “Jehovah.” which actually represent the anglicization of the Hebrew letters: יהוה or “Yod, Hey, Vav, Hey.”
Some Essene rabbis claim these letters symbolize “that which cannot be named,” which relates to the divine order.
According to Godfrey Higgins' Anacalypsis, “the surplus of the burnt-offering meats [was] regularly sold for profit by the [stewards] of the temple.”
The hidden profit motive behind requiring temple-goers to bring sacrificial livestock to appease a “god” exposes the gradual corruption of what was originally taught as a symbolic parable in the ancient mystery schools of the East.
As the Alchemist revealed, the original wisdom teaching of “sacre-fice” had everything to do with a human activity done alone by an individual seeker focused on cultivating conscious contact with his or her “Higher Self,” the “over soul,” “thinker,” “guardian angel,” “inner light,” “Christ/Krishna consciousness,” or “Nirvana.”
This self-discipline focused “sacrifice” was actually a number of daily practices that includes but is not limited to:
renouncing the consumption of animal flesh,
daily rigorous physical survival-training,
restraint in the use of one’s words and actions,
daily hour-by-hour contemplation of the spiritual principles of one’s religious upbringing
(with quarterly 17-85 hour solo commune-with-nature wilderness survival wanderings).
The list continues, but suffice it to say the archaic practice of animal sacrifice had absolutely nothing to do with capturing, raising in slavery, or ritualistically murdering innocent animals.
It had absolutely everything to do with learning and reinforcing self-control over one’s own limbic-system-dominated “animal-nature” mind, clearly illustrated in Hindu and Jewish symbols of controlling the horses of our chariot and Ezekiel’s vision.
The Alchemist would often emphasize, “Any so-called preacher or so-called religious scholar who condones (a) the ritualistic murder of innocent animals or (b) eating the rotting carcass of murdered innocent animals* is -- at the very least -- untrustworthy and corrupted by “inimical thoughts” and at worst criminal and probably prone to violent predatory activities in their modus vivendi (“life outside the public eye”).
*The only exception being that an individual must capture, prepare, and eat a wild animal because no other foods (vegetable, root, fungi, or cacti) are available within a 17-mile radius, such as we find among the Inuit huddled up in igloos in a frozen wasteland.
The Alchemist taught me well.
The Alchemist would often add, “Any astute seeker who has chosen to listen to my “Dharma talk” up to this point would do well to trust-but-verify the truth behind these statements by deeply researching:
(a) the recorded history of religious clerical corruption (Eastern and Western) over the past 6,850 years,
(b) the plant-based lifestyle of Mahayana Buddhists, Hindus, and the (original Christian cult known as) Essenes, and
(c) the esoteric symbolism contained in Mayan, Hindu, and Jewish myths. More
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